• IPA: /ˈsɪmpəl/

simple (comparative simpler, superlative simplest)

1. Uncomplicated; taken by itself, with nothing added.
   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314 ↗, page 0088 ↗:

     “[…] We are engaged in a great work, a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic? […]”

   • 2001, Sydney I. Landau, Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography, Cambridge University Press ISBN 0-521-78512-X, page 167,

     There is no simple way to define precisely a complex arrangement of parts, however homely the object may appear to be.

2. Without ornamentation; plain.
3. Free from duplicity; guileless, innocent, straightforward.

   • Full many fine men go upon my score, as simple as I stand here, and I trust them.

   • Must thou trust Tradition's simple tongue?

   • To be simple is to be great.

4. Undistinguished in social condition; of no special rank.

   Antonyms: gentle

5. (now, rare) Trivial; insignificant.
   • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X:

     ‘That was a symple cause,’ seyde Sir Trystram, ‘for to sle a good knyght for seyynge well by his maystir.’

6. (now, colloquial) Feeble-minded; foolish.
7. (heading, technical) Structurally uncomplicated.
   1. (chemistry) Consisting of one single substance; uncompounded.
   2. (mathematics) Of a group: having no normal subgroup.
   3. (botany) Not compound, but possibly lobed.
   4. (of a steam engine) Using steam only once in its cylinders, in contrast to a compound engine, where steam is used more than once in high-pressure and low-pressure cylinders.
      • 1959, Steam's Finest Hour, edited by David P. Morgan, Kalmbach Publishing Co., page 6:

        quote en

   5. (zoology) Consisting of a single individual or zooid; not compound.

      a simple ascidian

   6. (mineralogy) Homogenous.
8. (obsolete) Mere; not other than; being only.
   • c. 1604–1605, William Shakespeare, “All’s VVell, that Ends VVell”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act II, scene i]:

     A medicine […] whose simple touch / Is powerful to araise King Pepin.

• (consisting of a single part or aspect) onefold
• (having few parts or features) plain
• See also Thesaurus:easy and Thesaurus:bare-bones

• (having few parts or features) complex, compound, complicated
• (uncomplicated) subtle

• French: simple
• German: einfach, simpel
• Italian: semplice, mero
• Portuguese: simples
• Russian: просто́й
• Spanish: simple, sencillo

• French: simple
• German: einfach, simpel
• Portuguese: simples
• Russian: просто́й

simple (plural simples)

1. (pharmacology) A herbal preparation made from one plant, as opposed to something made from more than one plant.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 37, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821 ↗:

     I know there are some simples, which in operation are moistening and some drying.

   • What virtue is in this remedy lies in the naked simple itself as it comes over from the Indies.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare & Co.; Sylvia Beach, OCLC 560090630 ↗; republished London: Published for the Egoist Press, London by John Rodker, Paris, October 1922, OCLC 2297483 ↗:

     The first fellow that picked an herb to cure himself had a bit of pluck. Simples. Want to be careful.

   • 2003, Dolores Stewart Riccio, Charmed Circle, Kensington Books (ISBN 9780758203014), page 12:

     The venerable carryall, formerly brimming with all manner of esoteric pamphlets and witch's simples, now overflowed with a cascade of soft toys, juice bottles, tissues, linen books for infants, […]

2. (obsolete, by extension) A physician.
3. (logic) A simple or atomic proposition.
4. (obsolete) Something not mixed or compounded.
   • c. 1598–1600, William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act IV, scene i]:

     But it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and indeed the sundry contemplation of my travels

5. (weaving) A drawloom.
6. (weaving) Part of the apparatus for raising the heddles of a drawloom.
7. (Roman Catholic) A feast which is not a double or a semidouble.

• French: simple
• Spanish: simple

simple (simples, present participle simpling; past and past participle simpled)

1. (transitive, intransitive, archaic) To gather simples, i.e. medicinal herbs.